數幅照片直擊極度乾旱的加利福尼亞(多圖)

Stark photos of CAlifornia's devastating drought

數幅照片直擊極度乾旱的加利福尼亞

A shepherd rests after loading sheep fortransport. Firebaugh, California.

一名牧羊人裝載完羊羣后立在柵欄前休息。加利福亞，法爾博。

A dry wheat field. Ducor, California.

乾旱的麥田。加利福尼亞，杜克。

Water well gone dry. Stratford, California.

水井榦枯。加利福尼亞，斯特拉特福德。

A dead alMond orchard is removed near Los Banos, California.

加利福尼亞巴諾斯市附近一座廢棄的杏仁果園。

Children at home in Alpaugh, California.

孩子在加利福尼亞阿爾波（Alpaugh）市的家中。

Harvesting asparagus. Firebaugh, California.

收割蘆筍。加利福尼亞，法爾博。

Fallowed tomato fields near Corcoran, California.

加利福尼亞科克倫附近的番茄休耕地。

Tomato harvest. Firebaugh, California.

收穫番茄。加利福尼亞，法爾博。

A flock of sheep in a denuded wheat field. Mendota, California.

行走在麥田裸露地表上的一羣羊。加利福尼亞，門多塔。

Loading sheep for transport to new rsfield, California.

將羊裝載到新的牧場。加利福尼亞，貝克爾斯菲市。

Main street in Taft, California.

加利福尼亞塔夫特（Taft）的主幹道。

California is in the midst of its worst drought in more than a century. Morethan half the state is in "exceptional drought," the driest conditionspossible, according to the United States Drought Monitor. And after threestraight years of little rainfall and predictions of a drier than usual winter,there's no sign of relief.

一百多年來，加利福尼亞一直極度嚴重的乾旱之中。據全美旱情監測項目，該州一半以上的面積處於“極度乾旱”，可能達到了乾旱的極限。繼連續三年降雨量稀少以及預測將迎來乾旱於往常的冬日，情況沒有緩解的跡象。

The pain of the drought has been feltsharpest in California's Central Valley, long described as the nation's breadbasket because itprovides more than 50 percent of the country's food supply. Water reservoirsare empty, and wells have run dry. Residents in some tiny towns have no runningwater at all. Many have likened it to a modern day Dust Bowl, andphotographer Matt Black has been documenting it all, producing starkimages that are eerily reminiscent of the work produced by actual Dust Bowlphotographers, including Dorothea Lange and ArthurRothstein.

加利福尼亞中央山谷受苦尤甚，由於爲國家供應過半的食物，這裏自古就被稱作國家的麪包籃。水庫的水用完了，井水也已乾涸，一些小鎮的居民沒有任何的流水可用。很多人將這裏比作今日的風沙侵蝕區。攝影師Matt Black將這些都記錄了下來，這些荒涼的照片令人可怕地想起攝影師們創作的真實反映風沙侵蝕區的作品，這些攝影師們包括Dorothea Lange和Arthur Rothstein。

But it's more than just a photographyproject. It's personal. Black, who grew up in Visalia,Calif., the agricultural heart of the Central Valley, has been documenting the land of hischildhood slowly waste away, starved of the water that farmers desperately needto keep their crops and livelihoods alive. He's been focused not just on theland but on the people—the farmers and the workers, both—who are struggling to survive.

但這不僅僅是一個攝影項目，這也是個人記事。加利福尼亞維賽利亞是中央山谷的農業中心地帶，在這裏長大的Black一直記錄着這塊漸漸荒蕪、缺乏讓農民渴望將農作物養活以求得謀生之道的水源的土地。他關注的不只是土地，還有人——那些求生的農民和工人。